(1) One of KPCB's defense points was that Pao was hired "for administrative work only," and that's why she wasn't promoted alongside her male peers. Pao has a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from Princeton, and she earned her MBA and JD at Harvard. She worked as a corporate attorney for Cravath, Swain & Moore, and at various startups before taking a job at KPCB.

(3) Defense attorney, Lynn Hermle, comes off as a bully. This is the first lawsuit I'm actively following, so I was surprised by her sarcastic remarks, "huffing", and general willingness to throw Pao under the bus. Everything I've read says Hermle is one of the best lawyers in the business, and that kind of behavior is hallmark of great defense lawyers. In this 2002 profile, Hermle says, "I had believed those lies about big law firms being stuffy, that you had to be a certain gender." Hermle seems like an old-school feminist, where just getting a chance to play the game was a win. I wonder if she agrees with women like Pao, who demand equal treatment, rather than a few "token" positions at every law/finance/tech firm.

Ultimately, the 1987 stock market crash and the 1994 bond market crash, as well as, to a lesser extent, the 2000 dotcom bubble, deflated the egos of greedy bankers. Suddenly, risk-taking was out, and conservatism and HR departments were in. That precedent, along with the current flood of gender discrimination suits being filed against Silicon Valley firms (Facebook, Twitter, KPCB), has me optimistic that Silicon Valley will soon be forced to change its ways.